The Real Price Of A College Sports Betting Scandal

Simeon Cottle has his hands behind his back, swaying softly as he’s asked questions about an upcoming basketball game.

Cottle is being celebrated for becoming the fifth player in Kennesaw State history with 1,500 career points. He smiles, but looks nervous at the attention and the young woman standing next to him.

“I know I put in constant hours, day to day basis, so it’s just me going out and doing what I do,” Cottle said on the video posted on X.

A couple of weeks later, Cottle, and 25 more college basketball players would be named in a sprawling government indictment that detailed point-shaving across 17 schools and for some reason, the Chinese Basketball Association.

Cue the outrage from commentators about the evils of sports betting and college athletics. It’s true, America has a gambling problem, but more than that, America has a money program. Money is the main factor for just about every decision made by Americans today. Politics. Sports. Maybe it was always that way. Maybe it’s gotten worse.

Maybe Simeon Cottle should have known better. But what lesson has he been taught? Sports betting and gambling is everywhere. “Get that bag” is the philosophy for a lot of young people. It’s code for make that money. Start an OnlyFans, enter the transfer portal – someone will pay you big bucks for it and you’re set for life, right?

Carlos Hart From The Dirt

Carlos Hart’s Instagram page is private. The guard last seen playing for Eastern Michigan (I don’t know whether to call him a senior, junior, who knows?) was another name listed in the charges.

Hart is originally from Miami. The other thing that is striking about the players named…they can all play. Like, they’re good.

Hart started at South Georgia State and led them to the NJCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. Then he went to the University of New Orleans, which is about as far away from the center of college basketball as you can get. (I say this as a New Orleans native who has attended Privateer games in person in my life).

From there he went to Valdosta State. Like so many other kids, he’s looking for playing time, a bigger platform, and probably, a payday.

In an interview with the SID at Valdosta State, Hart said he was destined to go to VSU and that his favorite other sport is soccer. His favorite song What You Say by BigHomieFTD.

FTD is “From The Dirt” and What You Say is a surprisingly upbeat song.

“Money on my mind….” BigHomie says. “Before all is said and done, I bet the world will now who I am.”

Hart left Valdosta State (so much for destiny) and signed up at Eastern Michigan. Just switching uniforms and addresses. Hart was averaging 13.1 points for the Eagles before all this came out and he was suspended.

Seen This One Before

The government report has been laughed at and scrutinized. Players sending messages to their ‘fixers’ during games. Games where plans go awry because one player isn’t in on the scheme and is having a career night.

It’s funny, but it’s sad too.

Cottle, Hart…they’re young men who made bad decisions. They aren’t the first. They won’t be the last.

Clyde Eads was a good outside shooter at Tulane in 1985. In my side yard with my hoop in Louisiana, I pretended to be Clyde Eads more than once. This was before the three-point shot, and mid-range jumpers were the secret sauce in college basketball.

Eads ended up as one the centerpieces of one the biggest point shaving scandals in NCAA basketball history at Tulane. Tulane shuttered the program for years. It’s a scandal largely forgotten. There was no FanDuel or DraftKings Sportsbooks online back then (there wasn’t even an online back them). My little heart was broken though.

So when people say there’s no victim here, they’re wrong. But the victims are the players in the mirror. They cheated themselves. Cottle and Hart could play. Eads could play.

There’s nothing wrong with being a 1,500 point scorer at Kennesaw State. There’s nothing wrong with being a role player on a mid-major basketball team and having kids want to be you in their backyard. The real shame is that we don’t talk about that enough.

With college sports and sports betting, the genie was out of the bottle a long time ago. Pull the ads for BetMGM, and people will still bet, impressionable kids can still be swayed, told they can make some easy money by bookies. The only cost is their integrity.

And that is one thing money can never buy back.